sank work
Tailors’ phrase for soldiers’ clothes. Perhaps from the Norman SANC, blood,—in allusion either to the soldier’s calling, or the colour of his coat.
English · UK & Ireland 2057
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Expressions you’ll hear in Britain and Ireland — distinctly British usage first, then widespread staples.
sap
Or SAPSCULL, a poor green simpleton, with no heart for work.
sappy
Soft, foolish, namby-pamby, milk-and-watery. "It’s such a SAPPY book."
sapscull
A simple fellow. Sappy; foolish.
satin
Gin; "a yard of SATIN," a glass of gin. Term used by females on make-believe errands, when the real object of their departure from home is to replenish the private bottle. With servants the words "tape" and "ribbon" are more common, the purchase of these feminine requirements being the general excuse for asking to "run out for a little while." See WHITE SATIN.
satyr
A libidinous fellow: those imaginary things are by poets reported to be extremely salacious.
sauce box
A term of familiar raillery, signifying a bold or forward person.
saucebox
A pert young person. In low life it also signifies the mouth.
saunterer
An idle, lounging fellow; by some derived from SANS TERRE; applied to persons, who, having no lands or home, lingered and loitered about. Some derive it from persons devoted to the Holy Land, SAINT TERRE, who loitered about, as waiting for company.
save
To give part of one bet for part of another. A. and B. have backed different horses, and they agree that in the event of either one winning he shall give the other, say, £5. This is called "SAVING a fiver," and generally is done when scratchings and knockings-out have left the field so that one of the two speculators must be a winner.
save-all
A kind of candlestick used by our frugal forefathers, to burn snuffs and ends of candles. Figuratively, boys running about gentlemen's houses in Ireland, who are fed on broken meats that would otherwise be wasted, also a miser.
saveloy
A sausage of bread and chopped beef smoked, a minor kind of POLONY, which see.
savvey
To know; "do you SAVVEY that?" Spanish, SABE. In the nigger and Anglo-Chinese patois, this is SABBY, "me no SABBY." It is a general word among the lower classes all over the world. It also means acuteness or cleverness; as, "That fellow has plenty of SAVVEY."
saw
An old saw; an ancient proverbial saying.
saw
A term at whist. A SAW is established when two partners alternately trump a suit, played to each other for the express purpose.
saw your timber
"be off!" equivalent to "cut your stick." Occasionally varied, with mock refinement, to "amputate your mahogany." See CUT.
sawney
Or SANDY, a Scotchman. Corruption of Alexander.
scab
A worthless man or woman.
scab
A worthless person.—Old. Shakspeare uses "scald" in a similar sense.
scab-raiser
A drummer in the army, so called from one of the duties formerly pertaining to that office, viz., inflicting corporal punishment on the soldiers.—Military.
scabby neck
A native of Denmark.—Sea.
scabby-sheep
Epithet applied by the vulgar to a person who has been in questionable society, or under unholy influence, and become tainted. Also a mean disreputable fellow.
scald miserables
A set of mock masons, who, A.D. 1744, made a ludicrous procession in ridicule of the Free Masons.
scalder
A clap. The cull has napped a scalder; the fellow has got a clap.
scaly
Mean. Sordid. How scaly the cove is; how mean the fellow is.
scaly
Shabby, or mean. Perhaps anything which betokens the presence of the "Old Serpent," or it may be a variation of "fishy."
scaly fish
An honest, rough, blunt sailor.
scamander
To wander about without a settled purpose;—possibly in allusion to the winding course of the Homeric river of that name.
scamp
A highwayman. Royal scamp: a highwayman who robs civilly. Royal foot scamp; a footpad who behaves in like manner.
scamp
A graceless fellow, a rascal; a wandering vagabond; scamping was formerly the cant term for plundering and thieving. A ROYAL-SCAMP was a highwayman, whilst a FOOT-SCAMP was an ordinary thief with nothing but his legs to trust to in case of an attempt at capture. Some have derived SCAMP from qui ex campo exit, one who leaves the field, a deserter.
scandal proof
One who has eaten shame and drank after it, or would blush at being ashamed.
scandal-water
Tea; from old maids’ tea-parties being generally a focus for scandal.
scapegallows
One who deserves and has narrowly escaped the gallows, a slip-gibbet, one for whom the gallows is said to groan.
scapegrace
A wild dissolute fellow.
scaramouch
Properly a tumbler, or SALTIMBANCO. Also a disreputable fellow.
scarborough-warning
A warning given too late to be taken advantage of. When a person is driven over, and then told to keep out of the way, he receives SCARBOROUGH-WARNING. Fuller says the proverb alludes to an event which happened at that place in 1557, when Thomas Stafford seized upon Scarborough Castle before the townsmen had the least notice of his approach.
scarce
To make one's self scarce; to steal away.
scarce
TO MAKE ONESELF; to be off; to decamp.
scarlet horse
A high red, hired or hack horse: a pun on the word HIRED.
scarlet-town
Reading, in Berkshire. As the name of this place is pronounced Redding, SCARLET-TOWN is probably a rude pun upon it.
scarper
To run away; Spanish, ESCAPAR, to escape, make off; Italian, SCAPPARE. "SCARPER with the feeley of the donna of the carzey," to run away with the daughter of the landlady of the house; almost pure Italian, "SCAPPARE COLLA FIGLIA DELLA DONNA DELLA CASA."—Seven Dials and Prison Cant, from the Lingua Franca.
scavey
Sense, knowledge. "Massa, me no scavey;" master, I don't know (NEGRO LANGUAGE) perhaps from the French SCAVOIR.
scheme
A party of pleasure.
schism monger
A dissenting teacher.
schism shop
A dissenting meeting house.
schism-shop
A Dissenters’ meeting-house.—University.
schofel
Bad money. See SHOFUL.
school
A knot of men or boys; generally a body of idlers or street gamblers. Also, two or more "patterers" working together in the streets.
schroff
A banker, treasurer, or confidential clerk.—Anglo-Indian.
schwassle box
The street arrangement for Punch and Judy. See SWATCHEL-COVE.
sconce
The head, probably as being the fort and citadel of a man: from SCONCE, an old name for a fort, derived from a Dutch word of the same signification; To build a sconce: a military term for bilking one's quarters. To sconce or skonce; to impose a fine. ACADEMICAL PHRASE.
sconce
The head; judgment, sense.—Dutch.
score
A reckoning, "to run up a SCORE at a public-house," to obtain credit there until pay-day, or a fixed time, when the debt must be "wiped off." From the old practice of scoring a tippler’s indebtedness on the inside of a public-house door.
scot
A quantity of anything, a lot, a share.—Anglo-Saxon, SCEAT, pronounced SHOT.
scotch bait
A halt and a resting on a stick, as practised by pedlars.
scotch greys
Lice. The headquarters of the Scotch greys: the head of a man full of large lice.
Scotch mist
A type of fine, steady rain
scotch pint
A bottle containing two quarts.
scotch warming pan
A wench; also a fart.
scotches
The legs; also synonymous with notches.